Two parts in one volume, folio (358x249 mm). [16], 21, [1 blank], 62 leaves; 212, [30] leaves and 1 engraved map. Collation: [π]2 A6 B-C4 aa-cc6 dd4 a-i6 k8; A-C6 [χ]1 D-Z6 Aa-Ll6 Mm8 a-e6. Leaf dd4 is a blank. Titles with engraved vignettes incorporating printers' device, woodcut diagrams in text, woodcut initials and ornaments, 64 engraved maps by Girolamo Porro, consisting of a full-page double-hemisphere world map (after Rumold Mercator, “an exceptionally fine engraving in its own right”, Shirley, The Mapping of the World, p. XXIX) and 63 half-page maps (27 Ptolemaic and 36 modern), including 3 further world maps. Contemporary vellum over boards, rebacked, red sprinkled edges, original endleaves preserved. Small repair to the bottom margin of the title page not affecting text, small repaired hole on the last leaf affecting some words, a few marginal spots, small light stain in the inner margin of the last leaves, some gatherings a bit yellowed, all in all a magnificent large-paper copy printed on a beautiful thick paper. The present copy is c. 50 mm taller and wider than most recorded copies.

LARGE-PAPER COPY

SECOND EDITION IN ITALIAN of Ptoemy's Geography with the additions and the commentary by the Padua cosmographer and mathematician G.A. Magini. First appeared in Latin in 1596, the work was soon clandestinely reprinted in Arnhem. The Italian version, by Leonardo Cernoti, was first printed at Venice in 1597-1598 by Giovanni Battista and Giorgio Galignani.

Magini worked on this edition for six years, between 1590 and 1596. He wrote the Commentaria et annotationes to Ptolemy's text and drew 37 new maps to be printed together with the 27 original ones (cf. R. Almagià, L' “Italia” di Giovanni Antonio Magini, Naples, 1922, pp. 2-3).

Porro's small engraved maps were first printed in quarto format in the original Latin edition of Magini's version (Venice, 1596); this is their sixth appearance in print, following the Latin editions of 1597, 1608 and 1617, and the aforementioned 1597-98 Italian edition.

Giovanni Antonio Magini, born in Padua, graduated in philosophy at Bologna in 1579. Nine years later he was appointed to the chair of mathematics at the same university, being preferred to G. Galilei. In his teaching he alternated lectures on Euclid to astronomical and astrological lessons.

A Ptolemy's supporter, he rejected the Copernican theory. He was very skilled in calculation and produced ephemeris that remained valid for a long time. In 1609 he introduced new terms in trigonometric tables, which were later adopted by Bonaventura Cavalieri, his successor in the chair of Bologna.

As a geographer and cartographer he published the first atlas exclusively devoted to Italy (Bologna, 1620). Magini died in Bologna in 1617. His manuscripts, containing the projects of various works, were confiscated by the Inquisition and went dispersed.

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Italian printing and the mind of man

Similar to a famous work of the Sixtiesâ, Printing and the Mind of Man, in which the main fields of knowledge are described in over four hundred printed works that had a significant impact on the history of mankind, I classici che hanno fatto lâItalia (âThe classics that have made Italyâ), proposes an ideal library of Italian authors (for birth or of adoption), and at the same time aims to illustrate an outline of Italian cultural history from the Quattrocento to the present, through a very personal, but representative selection of titles and editions.